Client Acquisition and Surveying

ABSTRACT

A method, system and computer program for enabling a loyalty system to be linked to one or more card issuers, cardholders, merchants, and thereby their cardholders. A system operable to create, implement and manage one or more loyalty programs that provide benefits to members of the loyalty programs in connection with transactions between the members and one or more merchants associated with the loyalty system. The method includes registering on the loyalty system one or more card issuers; one or more merchant acquirers associated with the one or more card issuers; a plurality of cardholders as members of the loyalty program. Establishing and applying rules for accrual and processing of benefits from the merchants to cardholders associated with the one or more card issuers in connection with transactions between the cardholders and the merchants with the loyalty system. Defining a rule based survey utility operable to issue surveys to members of the loyalty system on a transaction and non-transaction basis.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This utility patent application is a continuation of, and claimspriority to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/071,062, filed on Nov.4, 2013, titled “Method, System And Computer Program For ClientAcquisition And Surveying”, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,###,###, issued on______, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/663,533 filed Dec. 8, 2009, titled “Method, System And ComputerProgram For Client Acquisition And Surveying”, now U.S. Pat. No.8,577,722, issued on Nov. 5, 2013, which is a national stage ofPCT/CA2008/001103 filed Jun. 6, 2008, which claims priority fromCanadian Patent Application No. 2,591,175 filed on Jun. 8, 2007, each ofwhich are incorporated by reference in their entireties.

FIELD

This invention relates to creation and administration of loyalty rewardprograms. This invention relates more particularly to creation andadministration of loyalty reward programs involving a plurality ofmerchants and loyalty program members, including members holdingfinancial cards from a card issuer associated with the loyalty rewardprogram.

BACKGROUND

It should be understood that in this disclosure the term “merchant”refers to an entity who participates in a loyalty program to buildloyalty with customers, and potentially acquire new business, and inexchange is willing to provide a loyalty “benefit” (meaning in thisdisclosure the various type of benefits that may be associated withloyalty cards including points, whether convertible to financialrewards, or financial rewards convertible to points, cash, products,services, discounts, value add-ons for purchases of products orservices, the opportunity to enter into a contest with prizescontributed by the merchants, financial institutions and/or the loyaltysystem operator). A “member” refers to the customer or potentialcustomer who is a member of the referred to loyalty program. A “cardissuer” refers to an entity that issues (directly or through an agent)financial cards to individuals or businesses. The card issuer isgenerally a financial institution, financial institution in associationwith a credit card company, or other entity that has a financialinstitution arm. A “corporate sponsor” refers to a corporation wishingto develop and build product goodwill by sponsoring the loyalty system.“Financial cards” generally refer to credit cards, debit cards, INTERAC™cards, stored value cards and so on. “Cardholders” refer to theindividuals or businesses to whom the financial cards are issued. Itshould also be understood that “loyalty” is used in the broad sense toalso extend to “rewards”, therefore a “loyalty program” should beunderstood to also extend to a “reward program”.

Numerous customer loyalty and customer acquisition programs are known.Customer acquisition systems also play an increasingly important rolefor business. Customer loyalty programs can contribute to the loyalty ofexisting customers, but also can play a role in acquiring new customers.One of the challenges in deploying customer loyalty programs is findingefficient ways to attract new members to the loyalty program.

There are many card issuers in the marketplace. The businesses of thevarious card issuers can vary significantly. Financial cards aregenerally issued by or issued in cooperation with financialinstitutions. For example: (1) financial institutions (including afinancial institution associated with a source of benefits) issuefinancial cards directly to customers; and (2) a co-branded financialcard including for example the brand of the financial institution andthe brand of a source of benefits.

Financial institutions are often interested in partnering with etherentities, such as sources of benefits, to make the benefits associatedwith their financial card competitive. This is in order to retain andattract their customers, but also in order to compete for transactionshare as cardholders generally carry more than one financial card intheir wallet. Transaction share in turn affects the revenue realized bythe financial institution (as particularized herein). Accordingly,financial institutions tend to measure the effectiveness of theirmarketing efforts in connection with financial cards by analyzingincremental transactions involving their financial card.

In addition, financial institutions are generally interested in sharingprofit/risk with other parties in connection with their financial cardrelated activities. This is evidenced in the popularity of co-brandedcards. Generally speaking, however, card issuers are only interested inproviding access to their customer base to outside parties if there issignificant financial reward, and if this access does not conflict withtheir own interests and/or present any risk to the customer base.

Merchants provide benefits to their customers for reasons that are notdissimilar to the factors that motivate financial institutions.Merchants are interested in attracting and maintaining customers. Thecost of acquisition of a new customer for many merchants is quite high.While merchants are interested in acquiring new customers efficiently,they are often also willing to provide relatively significant benefitsin exchange for a new customer relationship from an outside source.

Merchants and financial institutions often collaborate in the context ofco-branded financial cards. Examples include airline/credit cards, oilcompany financial cards, or retail chain financial cards. From amerchant perspective, these collaborative arrangements are generallyavailable to large national chains and are not generally available toregional chains, even though from a customer acquisition or benefitsperspective such regional chains might be of interest to a financialinstitution. The costs associated with deploying and marketing aco-branded card require economies of scale that effectively exclude manyregional co-branded financial card arrangements. From the perspective ofa financial institution, the benefits associated with the co-brandedfinancial cards are generally limited to the type of benefits madeavailable by the one merchant or a relatively small group of associatedpartners. This exposes the financial institution to competition to otherco-branded financial cards, especially if the merchant associated withthe competing card is more popular or provides more attractive benefits.Also, relationships with merchants become difficult or cumbersome toreplace (especially over time) thereby resulting in loss of bargainingpower in the hands of the financial institution and thereby possibleerosion of benefits. This contributes risk to the financialinstitution's card issuing operation, and also generally results infinancial institutions entering into multiple co-branding relationships,which in turn adds to the associated costs.

There is a need for a loyalty program that enables multiple merchants toreflect their changing business objectives by dynamically modifying therules of the loyalty program as they relate to benefits accrued bycardholders. There is a further need for a loyalty program that enablesmerchants to customize their loyalty program, including as it related tocardholders who become members of the loyalty program, on the fly,including based on effectiveness and incremental cost. To better achievethese goals and to better understand the needs of the loyalty programmember, informational feedback is required. Therefore, there is a needfor a loyalty program that allows for customized surveys generated forloyalty program members as created by merchants, sponsors,manufacturers, and financial institutions.

Co-Pending Canadian Application No. 2,468,386, filed on May 27, 2004,describes a “Method, System, and Computer Program for Providing aLoyalty Engine Enabling Dynamic Administration of Cross-PromotionalLoyalty Programs (the “Co-Pending Patent Application”). The Co-PendingPatent Application generally describes a system, method and computerprograms that permits dynamic interactions between a plurality ofmerchants and a plurality of members. The particular solution describedin the Co-Pending Patent Application enables the merchants todynamically customize loyalty programs based on effectiveness andincremental cost. There is a particular need for a method, system andcomputer program that enables the efficient creation and management of arelationship between merchants and card issuers in the context of aloyalty program for mutual benefit.

Co-Pending Canadian Application No. 2,550,067 filed on Jun. 9, 2006describes a loyalty program wherein further benefits and means toacquire and retain members may be associated with loyalty cardsincluding points, whether convertible to financial rewards, or financialrewards convertible to points, cash, products, services, discounts,value add-ons for purchases of products or services, the opportunity toenter into a contest with prizes contributed by the merchants, financialinstitutions and/or the loyalty system operator.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

An aspect of the present of the invention is a method for enabling aloyalty program to be linked to one or more card issuers, and therebytheir cardholders, by operation of a loyalty system, the loyalty systembeing operable to enable the creation, implementation and management ofone or more loyalty programs that provide benefits to members of theloyalty programs in connection with transactions between the members andone or more merchants associated with the loyalty system, the methodcomprising the steps of: registering on the loyalty system one or morecard issuers; registering on the loyalty system one or more merchantacquirers associated with the one or more care issuers; registering aplurality of the cardholders as members of the loyalty program; theoperator of the loyalty system, the one or more card issuers, and themerchants establishing the rules for accrual and processing of benefitsfrom the merchants to cardholders associated with the one or more cardissuers in connection with transaction between the cardholders and themerchants with the loyalty system; applying the rules to accrue andprocess the benefits of cardholders in connection with the transactionsbetween the cardholders and the merchants, by operation of the loyaltysystem; and defining a survey utility function capable to issue surveysto members of the loyalty system.

A further aspect of the present invention involves a method enabling aloyalty program to provide a survey utility function that allowsparticipating groups, including merchants, sponsors/manufacturers andfinancial institutions to prepare questions that may be posed to amember wherein the questions are compiled into a survey and the surveyutility function further comprising: maintaining a database of members'answers to the survey questions for future retrieval wherein the answersare recorded in association with the member who gave the answer; andcompiling reports for the merchants, sponsors/manufacturers andfinancial institutions based on their particular survey questions andthe survey responses received by the members.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A detailed description of the preferred embodiment(s) is (are) providedherein below by way of example only and with reference to the followingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a flowchart summarizing the overall method of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2a illustrates a particular embodiment of the method of the presentinvention, according to which a card issuer is registered to the loyaltysystem of the present invention.

FIG. 2b illustrates a particular embodiment of the method of the presentinvention, according to which a merchant acquirer is registered to theloyalty system of the present invention.

FIG. 2c illustrates a particular embodiment of the method of the presentinvention, according to which a cardholder is registered to the loyaltysystem of the present invention, thereby becoming a member.

FIG. 2d illustrates a particular embodiment of the present invention,according to which a corporate sponsor is registered to the loyaltysystem of the present invention with the option to survey members on atransactional or non-transactional basis.

FIG. 3 is a system flowchart illustrating the resources of the system ofthe present invention, in one embodiment thereof.

FIG. 4a illustrates the operation of the system of the presentinvention, in one particular embodiment thereof, specifically inconnection with fee accrual.

FIG. 4b illustrates the operation of the system of the presentinvention, in one particular embodiment thereof, specifically inconnection with conversion of fees to points.

FIG. 4c illustrates the operation of the system of the presentinvention, in one particular embodiment thereof, specifically inconnection with the reporting functionality.

FIG. 4d illustrates the operation of the system of the presentinvention, in one particular embodiment thereof, specifically inconnection with dynamic reward development.

FIG. 5 illustrates the access to the survey utility by the merchant,corporate sponsor and financial institution.

FIG. 6 illustrates the adding/editing of the conditions for a merchantbased transaction survey.

FIG. 7 illustrates the adding/editing of the conditions for a merchantbased non-transaction survey.

FIG. 8 illustrates the adding/editing of the conditions for a corporatesponsor based transaction survey.

FIG. 9 illustrates the adding/editing of the conditions for a corporatesponsor based non-transaction survey.

FIG. 10 illustrates the adding/editing of the conditions for a financialinstitution based transaction survey.

FIG. 11 illustrates the adding/editing of the conditions for a financialinstitution based non-transaction survey.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of a transaction based survey.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example of data collection and application of thedynamic rule sets for survey development.

FIG. 14 illustrates the member feedback page.

FIG. 15 illustrates the method by which a member may provide feedback toa particular merchant, corporate sponsor, manufacturer and financialinstitution.

FIG. 16 illustrates the survey reporting module view accessible by themerchants, corporate sponsors, financial institutions.

In the drawings, preferred embodiments of the invention are illustratedby way of example. It is to be expressly understood that the descriptionand drawings are only for the purpose of illustration and as an aid tounderstanding, and are not intended as a definition of the limits of theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 illustrates the general method of the present invention. A methodis illustrated that enables a loyalty program to be linked to one ormore card issuers, and thereby to their cardholders, by operation of aloyalty program platform or loyalty engine or loyalty system. The methodincludes registering on the loyalty system one or more card issuers(10). The loyalty system of the present invention already provides to aplurality of merchants associated with the loyalty system a plurality oftools to customize one or more loyalty programs made available tomembers of the loyalty program platform (customers and potentialcustomers of the merchants). As illustrated in FIG. 1, the operator ofthe loyalty program platform establishes the rules regarding the accrualof benefits from merchants to the card issuers and/or cardholders (12),and establishes a contractual relationship with the one or more cardissuers (14), such contracts incorporating the rules applicable withinthe loyalty system in connection with the card issuers (as well as theircardholders). These rules include, for example, the term of theagreement, accrual periods, geographic area of operation (if applicable)and most importantly the particulars of the benefits (including pertransaction benefits, convertibility of benefits, accrual periods,timing of obligation regarding realization of benefits etc. asparticularized below) accrued to cardholders and/or card issuers.

These rules are reinforced in the arrangements entered into between theoperator of the loyalty system and the various merchants so as to definethe terms under which benefits will be made available to cardholdersand/or card issuers.

In accordance with a particular embodiment of the present invention, theoperator of the loyalty system establishes independently the rules underwhich the merchant shall accrue benefits for cardholders and/or cardissuers, generally independently of card issuer but in conformity withthe arrangements entered between the operator of the loyalty system andthe card issuer (16). One of the advantages of the present invention isthat the operator of the loyalty system manages the aforesaidrelationships, and provides access to a technology infrastructure thatenables card issuers and merchants to focus on using the tools of theloyalty system to enhance their business, rather than spending extensiveresources on administrative issues.

Typically, the merchants agree to conform to commitments that they maketo members that are displayed in a benefits area of a website associatedwith the members who are cardholders, and linked to the loyalty system.These commitments are generally made by merchants in connection with thecustomization of their loyalty programs by operation of the loyaltyengine described in the Co-Pending Patent Application.

The merchant acquirer is also registered on the loyalty system (18), ifthe merchant acquirer is not already registered. The cardholders areregistered as members on the loyalty system (20). This occurs in part asa result of promotion of the loyalty system to the cardholders by thecard issuer, as explained below. It is important to understand that, inaddition to the card issuer, in most cases there is also a “merchantacquirer”, who is an entity that contracts with a merchant to processfinancial card transaction information, and that receives unique datanot received by the card issuer.

As a further aspect of the method of the present invention, the loyaltysystem applies the aforementioned rules as they apply to each cardholderwho is a member so as to process the applicable benefits based onapplicable transactions entered into by the cardholder that are linkedto the loyalty system, i.e. a qualifying transaction between acardholder and a merchant, as determined by the aforesaid rules (22). Byapplication of such rules, the loyalty system processes the agreed tobenefits for the cardholder and/or the card issuer (24).

FIG. 2a illustrates in greater detail the particular aspect of thepresent invention according to which a card issuer is registered to theloyalty system. FIG. 2b illustrates a particular embodiment of themethod of the present invention, according to which a merchant acquireris registered to the loyalty system of the present invention. The roleof the merchant acquirer is explained in greater details below. FIG. 2cillustrates in greater detail a particular embodiment of the presentinvention according to which a cardholder is registered to the loyaltysystem of the present invention, thereby becoming a member. FIG. 2dillustrates in greater detail a particular embodiment of the presentinvention, according to which a corporate sponsor is registered to theloyalty system of the present invention. The corporate sponsor is thenprovided the opportunity to prepare survey questions which could laterbe posed to the cardholder on a transactional or non-transactionalbasis.

FIG. 3 best illustrates the system of the present invention, in oneparticular embodiment thereof. The system is best understood as anextension of the functionality described in the Co-Pending PatentApplication and therefore including generally a loyalty system (26),implemented on a server computer (28). The loyalty system (26) includesa cardholder benefits processing utility (30) of the present invention.The server computer (28) is preferably connected to the Internet. In oneexample of an implementation of the cardholder benefits processingutility (30), it is best understood as a software component of a webutility that provides the loyalty engine (30) particularized in theCo-Pending Patent Application. The cardholder benefits processingutility (30) is programmed in a manner that is known to those skilled inthe art, and is operable to provide on the database (32) the benefitsaccounts (34) of the various cardholders who are members. Access todifferent aspects of the database (32) is provided by a knownadministration utility (not shown) that enables hierarchical access tothe database (32), depending on permissions assigned by the operator ofthe loyalty system, to each of members, merchants, card issuers andmerchant acquirers. The purpose of providing this access is to providetransparency to the benefits being provided to members who arecardholders by operation of the loyalty system, as particularized below.A reporting utility or transaction data reporting (36) is further linkedto the cardholder benefits processing utility (30) to provide variousreports of interest to merchants, merchant acquirers, card issuers andcardholders in particular, for example, by permitting merchants,merchant acquirers and card issuers to generate reports on measuredperformance of benefits provided to them by the loyalty system in theirsphere of interest (as particularized below). One of the purposes of thereporting utility (36) is to enable the organizations linked to theloyalty system to calibrate their involvement (e.g. by merchants or cardissuers calibrating the benefits that they provide) targeted tocardholders, as described in the Co-Pending Patent Application.

It should be understood that in one particular embodiment of the presentinvention, card issuers are also provided with the tools described inthe Co-Pending Patent Application to design and implement their ownloyalty programs, including cross-promotional programs in conjunctionwith merchants.

The system of the present invention is operable with any financial cardthat permits tracking of transaction information through the known cardprocessing systems. Financial cards such as credit cards, debit cards,INTERAC™ cards, stored value cards, are designated by a BIN numberrange. The BIN range identifies the financial card type and the issuingfinancial institution. Card issuers typically market card types tocertain segments of the population based upon demographic data such ascredit scores, income, age and anticipated card use. Because of this theBIN range may also represent a market or demographic segment. Forinstance co-branded business travel cards are marketed towards personsand organizations that typically utilize the specialized features of atravel card, such as points for travel and/or specialized services tofacilitate needs and wants of persons who travel regularly. Anothercard, the TOYS R US™ card, is provided to young families. Each financialcard therefore may be used to target particular consumer needs. Theunique BIN range associated with each financial card enables the use ofa particular financial card to be identified within the loyalty system(as explained below). This in turn enables merchants to targetparticular groups of members based on demographic data extrapolated fromthe financial card that they are using (by operation of the BIN rangeassociated with their card), or more particularly demographic dataassociated with a sub-set of cardholders using a particular financialcard, possibly as communicated by the card issuer.

The preferred embodiment outlined below utilizes the BIN range ofco-branded cards to develop additional transactions to selected groupsof card holders and promote the use of certain financial cards for thetransactions for the benefit of: cardholders, merchants, financial cardissuers and merchant acquirers.

As stated earlier, in accordance with the present invention, a cardissuer, and thereby one or more of its cardholders, are linked to theloyalty system, such as the loyalty system described in the Co-PendingPatent Application as further particularized herein. The loyaltyprograms provided by this loyalty system can run in parallel with otherloyalty and rewards programs.

In numerous implementations of the present invention, no software orhardware changes are required, therefore the costs of implementation arevery low. In one possible implementation of the present invention, asillustrated in FIG. 3, the loyalty system (20) is operable, via theInternet for example, to engage in real time data communications with acard issuer system (38) and/or a merchant acquirer system (40).Accordingly, in a manner known to those skilled in the art, seamlessdata flows between these systems can be established in order to enablethe capture of financial transactions and also the accrual of benefitsbased on data provided to the loyalty system by each of the card issuersystem (38) and the merchant acquirer system (40), as particularizedbelow.

In a particular embodiment of the invention, the loyalty system is notonly a loyalty system used by merchants but also becomes a secondaryloyalty system for the card issuer for its cardholders. The system ofthe present invention is operable to provide system tools for the cardissuer to receive payments from the merchants in connection withtransactions between the merchants and the cardholders of the cardissuer who are registered with the loyalty system. In other applicationsof the present invention, the card issuer generally receives paymentfrom the merchants indirectly through the interchange fees collected bya merchant acquirer from the merchants at the time a transaction isprocessed on a financial card. In this particular embodiment the cardissuer can receive payments and/or points from loyalty system merchantsfor transactions made by cardholders.

The card issuer may propose to encourage a specific demographic (asdefined by a BIN range) to join the loyalty program. In return themerchants in the loyalty system may agree to provide additional paymentsto the card issuer in the form of points or cash for transactionsbetween merchants and cardholders of a selected BIN range that haveregistered their financial card with the loyalty system or opted in tothe applicable loyalty program. By operation of the loyalty system ofthe present invention, in a particular aspect of the invention,merchants have the ability to vary the amount or the percentage of thetransaction accrued and paid to the card issuer, or some other aspect ofthe benefit provided. The payment may be in the form of cash orredeemable points. The loyalty system calculates the amount accrued tobe paid to the card issuer for each cardholder who is a member by eachmerchant. The reporting facility provides visibility to the card issuerand the merchant in regard to the amounts accrued and subsequently paidat the end of the measurement period.

The amounts transferred to the card issuer by operation of the presentinvention may be re-distributed by the card issuer to the cardholders inthe form of extra points for transactions completed or the card issuermay retain a percentage of the amount transferred, for example, as anadministration fee. In other words, the amounts transferred can then beaccrued and distributed in accordance with the card issuer's own rulestherefore.

In some circumstances the card issuer and the merchants of the loyaltysystem may choose to offer special offers/prizes through the merchantsand the loyalty system. The card issuer and the loyalty systempre-determine the conditions under which this occurs. When a registeredcardholder enters into such a transaction with a merchant in connectionwith the loyalty system, an amount owed by the card issuer to themerchant is recorded. At the end of the reporting period the systemaggregates the amounts owed to merchants by the card issuer andsettlement is made and then reimbursement funds are distributed to therespective merchants.

The system results in more transactions on the particular registeredfinancial card of the card issuer, more individuals/businesses owningand using a financial card with a particular BIN range(s) anddistribution of the cost of incentives provided the customer by the cardissuer and the merchant within the loyalty system. The amounts owed bythe merchants or to cardholder/card issuer are tracked within theloyalty system for the accounting period.

The end result is the accrual of benefits in the benefits account (34),which then in accordance with a particular embodiment of the presentinvention is disbursed on a periodic basis to the applicable cardissuers (including as particularized below).

In a particular aspect of the method of the present invention, theoperator of the loyalty system enters into a contract with a financialinstitution that has a plurality of co-branded cards and seeks newcustomer base potential through the financial institution's co-brandedcard partners that have an interest in increasing transactions on theirco-branded card by attracting merchants. In this case, it is often abusiness limitation that products and services associated with theloyalty program for the most part will not compete with the co-brandedpartner's business, i.e. that the businesses involved be complementary.The financial institution contacts and motivates its customer base(cardholders) to join the loyalty program and thereby provide theloyalty system with a stream of new members. As stated earlier, themembers joining the loyalty system through this referral source areassociated with their co-branded card(s) within the loyalty system, eachco-branded card being identified by different BIN number ranges andthereby historical demographics, credit score ranges and preferencesassociated with the particular card. Cardholders individually join theloyalty program and register their card.

The loyalty program uses the BIN number range and any associateddemographic and credit score, along with geography and any customerpreferences to direct special offers from merchants to the individualcardholders by operation of the present invention (for example: uniqueproduct/service offerings to specific customers). The loyalty system isoperable when a member with a co-branded card that is within a suitableBIN number range enters into a transaction with a merchant to record theapplicable transaction information, aggregate said transactioninformation; and supply measured results to both the merchant and thecard issuer, including as particularized herein.

Typically there is comity of interest between the merchants and the cardissuers, in that merchants will be willing to provide the greatestbenefits to the cardholders that the card issuers are most interested inproviding incentives to. Accordingly, from a card issuer perspective,the present invention provides an efficient mechanism for maximizingbenefits being provided to their preferred customers by having themregister with a loyalty system where merchants, in the interest ofpromoting their own products/services, will automatically provideoptimal benefits to these preferred customers.

For example a new member, joining through a co-branded card reference,transacts with the registered financial card, and in the embodimentwhere the merchant and/or the co-branded issuer supply the additionalbenefit (which, typically being supplied through the normal co-brandedcard channels, consists of points, discounts or cash back). The amountpaid by the merchant is usually based upon on one or more of thefollowing: (1) the amount of the transaction; (2) the value of thetransaction; and/or (3) the value of the transaction less an amount thatwas set as a pre-condition.

The card issuers benefits financially from the transactions involvingtheir financial cards in numerous ways: (1) cardholders carrying creditcard balances; (2) maintaining customers using the benefits and sellingother products/services to such customers; (3) acquiring new customersfor such products/services using benefits; (4) financial incentivesprovided to financial institutions in exchange for promotional access totheir customers; (5) interchange fees associated with transactionsinvolving the financial cards; (6) yearly card fees; (7) transactionfees charged to the cardholder (if applicable); (8) currency exchangefees; (9) fees payable to the card issuer by merchants (generally tiedto BIN ranges); (10) augmentation of card issuer's loyalty program(reduction of costs associated with card issuer's loyalty program, i.e.replacement of card issuer paid benefits with merchant paid benefits;and (11) revenue from merchant acquirer for additional transactionsinvolving the merchant and the merchant acquirer.

The merchant acquirer receives the benefits of: (1) additional merchantswho join their processing system to increase their access to a BIN rangeof cardholders; (2) additional revenue from merchants (participationfees); (3) increased revenue from additional merchant transactions; (4)ability to differentiate over other merchant acquirers based on theability to provide access to the loyalty system.

The invention provides for a linkage of a data between the loyaltysystem merchants and card issuers, and thereby their cardholders,facilitated through the loyalty system technology that enables a cardissuer to include its cardholders in a secondary loyalty system thatsupplements any card issuer point system.

It should be understood that loyalty and customer acquisition programsare required to continually acquire new members, preferably at a lowcost, e.g. through organic growth or through a partnership with variouscustomer sources, including card issuers. In the instance of merchantsparticipating in prior art loyalty program, card issuers have shown alimited willingness to share cardholder databases, both with otherloyalty program operators and with participating merchants, in partbecause there has been no method to measure and pay them currentlyexcept through the interchange mechanism and the transaction fees, or toprotect the customer.

In the card transaction process, the card issuer generally has access tothe following transaction information: (1) cardholder name; (2) cardnumber; (3) date of transaction; (4) merchant ID; (5) amount ofpurchase; and (6) BIN number.

While some financial institutions have both card issuing and merchantacquiring business lines, these do not necessarily work together for thecommon good. The merchant acquirers have access to following additionalinformation that is not generally available to the card issuer: (1) thetime of the transaction; (2) the terminal ID (within a merchant system);and (3) the fee rates charged by the merchant based upon the financialcard and how the financial card is used (e.g. interne transaction vs.verified signature).

In a particular aspect of the present invention, the loyalty system ofthe present invention is operable to link the card issuer, thecardholder, the merchant acquirer and the merchants such that theloyalty system is operable to match time of day data of a transactionwith other information provided by the card issuer to the loyaltysystem. This functionality allows merchants to offer time of day specialoffers to specific cardholders who are members of the loyalty system.

In another specific aspect of the present invention, the loyalty systemis operable to match the terminal ID information obtained from themerchant processor with the transaction information obtained from thecard issuer. This allows a merchant and/or a card issuer to tailorbenefits to specific geographic locations.

The loyalty system platform enables each of the merchants, members andcard issuers to track the accrual of benefits by means of financial cardtransactions that in connection with the loyalty system result in theaccrual of loyalty benefits, as particularized herein.

The loyalty system is operable to store the data items mentioned above(and other similar data items) to the database (32) and apply sameagainst transactions between participating members and participatingmerchants.

A particular embodiment of the processes (and the system implementationthereof) related to accrual of benefits is best understood by referenceto FIG. 4 a. The cardholder who is a member transacts with a merchantusing their financial card (40). The merchant transaction data is thenusually settled by the merchant acquirer (42). The member transactiondata is then preferably transmitted to the loyalty system (44). Thismember transaction data usually includes the data items described above.This data is then stored to the database (32), which in a preferredembodiment of the present invention is a known relational database. Therules defined for the cardholder within the loyalty system are thenapplied to the merchant transaction data as particularized in FIG. 4 a.

As stated earlier, an agreement is entered into between the card issuerand the operator of the loyalty system on behalf of the merchants. Theagreement may extend to one or more accounting periods. The agreementgenerally establishes the expected relationship and flow of fundsbetween the financial institution and the merchants based on anticipatedtransactions, as well as the additional incentives that will be providedto the cardholders for transactions linked to the loyalty system and whowill be the party covering the costs of such additional incentives andhow. The agreement generally covers group of financial cards, identifiedby a BIN range. Also as stated earlier, cardholders are encouraged bythe card issuer to join the loyalty program for additional cash rewards,points and/or special offers.

Prior to the beginning of an accounting period, and after cardholdershave registered their particular financial card with the loyalty system,the agreement between the cardholder and the loyalty system isimplemented by the merchants who set the offers that will be made tocardholders of certain BIN ranges (these are the merchant rules).

When a cardholder transacts with one of the merchants under theapplicable loyalty program, the loyalty system is operable to review thebenefits applicable to the BIN number and either 1) accrue thepoints/cash discount (less the administration amount paid to the cardissuer) to the cardholder from the transaction, by reflecting suchaccrual in the benefits account for the cardholder. The cardholder isnotified of the award of points, and the card issuer is notified of theaccrual set aside by the loyalty system to be paid by the merchant atthe end of the accounting period. These amounts are separate from theamounts paid to the card issuer through the interchange system, unless aspecial rate for the loyalty system has been established and applied bythe merchant acquirer.

The loyalty system accrues the points/special cash back awards for eachcardholder and what is owed the card issuer by the merchant. Merchantsgenerally pay cash or cash in lieu of points as a reward to the cardissuer. Different incentives/rewards can apply to different BIN rangesby a single merchant or by a group of merchants.

In summary, the merchant rules applicable for a specific accrual periodare applied so as to update the benefit account (34) for the particularcardholder, for example by reflecting an accrued fee in the specificembodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 4 a. Generally speaking,the loyalty system is operable to, after an accrual period has come toan end, to verify the accrued amounts in the benefit accounts (34).These can then be accessed and displayed by members.

After an accrual period is closed, the loyalty system, in a particularembodiment of the present invention, then permits members to access theloyalty system to engage in a number of transactions in connection withtheir accrued benefits such as redemption, conversion of fees to pointsetc. A particular process and system implementation thereof forconversion of fees to points is illustrated in FIG. 4 b.

Specifically, FIG. 4b illustrates the operation of a point conversionutility that is part of the loyalty system of the present invention. Thepoint conversion utility enables enhancement of a card issuer's exitingloyalty programs based upon points or cash back cardholder benefitscreated by cardholder use in connection with a loyalty program of thepresent invention. The point conversion utility preferably allows thecard issuer to reward their cardholders in the same format as undertheir existing cardholder program.

For instance, some existing financial cards have points or cash rewardsystems or a combination of both to promote financial card use. Thecardholder may accumulate points and cash rewards for later use. Theloyalty system of the present invention allows for the card issuer totake all or a portion of existing fees developed from financial card useand apply them to cardholder points or cash. Alternatively, the loyaltysystem of the present invention could be utilized by card issuer tocreate an additional source of revenue from the merchant fees by notconverting all of the collected fees and giving the benefit to thefinancial card holders.

The fee and point information is transferred to the card issuer “X” daysafter the end of an accumulation period. The information is laterintegrated by existing financial card issuer software to consolidate thepoint and/or fees that are passed on to the cardholder.

The conversion from points to fees is accommodated by comparing thetransaction data of identified cardholders against rule-sets created andmaintained by the card issuer. The rule-sets may, for example, containthe following information regarding transaction data: 1. TransactionAmount 2. Transaction Date 3. Transaction Time 4. Merchant ID 5. CardHolder ID 6. Card BIN number

An example of a card issuer rule-set includes: Card Holder Bin number“1111” Min. qualifying transaction with Merchant “A” is $100.00 NoMaximum qualifying transaction or conversion restrictions Transactionmust occur between 00:00:00-00:07:00 EST Transaction must occur betweenJan. 1, 2004 and Jan. 15, 2004 Card Issuer would like to give cardholder 1.0 point for every dollar transacted with merchant “A” Merchant“A” Card Holder Id 0-10000 Card Holder BIN Number “2222” Min. qualifyingtransaction with Merchant “A” is $100.00 Maximum qualifying transactionamount is $1000.00 Transaction must occur between 00:00:00-00:07:00 ESTTransaction must occur between Jan. 1, 2004 and Jan. 15, 2004 CardIssuer would like to give card holder 1.0 point for every dollartransacted with merchant “A” Merchant “A” Card Holder Id 0-10000 CardHolder BIN Number “3333” Min. qualifying transaction with Merchant “A”is $100.00 Maximum qualify transaction amount is $10,000.00 Transactionmust occur between 00:00:00-00:07:00 EST Transaction must occur betweenJan. 1, 2004 and Jan. 15, 2004 Card Issuer would like to record cardholder $0.01 benefits for every dollar transacted with merchant “A”Merchant “A” Card Holder Id 0-10000

In another example of the related transaction detail: Card Holder BINnumber “1111”-Transaction Amount: $104.00 Transaction Date: Jan. 1, 2004Transaction Time: 00:00:12 Merchant: “A” Card Holder ID: b 1 Result:System would calculate 100 points for the transaction detail and recordthe Transaction information and related conversion amount 100 points.

In yet another example of the processing of a transaction by operationof the loyalty system of the present invention:

Transaction Detail

Card Holder BIN Number “2222” Transaction Amount: $90.00 TransactionDate: Jan. 1, 2004 Transaction Time: 00:00:12 Merchant: “B” Card HolderID: 999999 Result: System would NOT create any points for thetransaction because the transaction failed to meet the criteria forpoint conversion for the transaction detail Merchant “B” is not part ofthe conversion rule-set Card holder is not part of any existingrule-sets

In yet another example of the processing of a transaction by operationof the loyalty system of the present invention:

Transaction Detail

Card Holder BIN Number “3333” Transaction Amount: $900.00 TransactionDate: Jan. 1, 2004 Transaction Time: 00:00:12 Merchant: “A” Card HolderID: 999999 Result: System would record $0.90 of benefit associated withthe above transaction information tied to the card holder ID number of“999999”

FIG. 4c illustrates the processes and a system implementation thereof inconnection the generation of reports based on the contents of database(32). In the specific embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4 c, a systemadministrator of the operator of the loyalty system accesses certainreports in connection with merchant activity in connection withparticular BIN ranges. Similar processes and system implementations areused to generate other reports of information accessible to cardissuers, merchants, members or merchant acquirers. These reports areprovided in a manner that is known.

The loyalty system is operable to generate reports for card issuers totrack the use and monitor the results of financial card use withidentified merchants

For instance a card issuer may wish to view the status of conversion ofpoints to fees. The loyalty system, in one particular implementationthereof, allows for a System Administrator to log in and generatereports regarding the amount of fees that have been converted to pointsto monitor the effectiveness of the applicable loyalty program.

EXAMPLE 1.0

The System Administrator enters the following parameters for reportgeneration on behalf of the card issuer: 1) Start Date 2) End Date 3)BIN Number 4) Financial Institution ID 5) Merchant ID 6) TransactionTime 7) Transaction Terminal ID 8) Report Type

The loyalty system returns the data associated with the transaction(s)to monitor the points and fees collected and converted to allow the cardissuer to view data regarding the status of the system.

A card issuer may want to know which merchants are supporting aparticular financial card to judge the effectiveness of the businessrelationship between the merchant and the cardholders. By examining thetransaction information the card issuer can judge the effectiveness ofhaving particular merchants within the loyalty system, based oncollected merchant fees. A cardholder may elect to charge the merchantadditional fee amounts as the merchant receives strong support from thecardholders of a particular card issuer.

The described reporting functionality can also be used to track the datanecessary to integrate the data of points and fees held within theloyalty system for a given time period. A card issuer may elect to viewthe information to keep current information regarding benefits that aredue to the cardholders.

By examining the data of accumulated points and fees a card issuer mayelect to alter the conversion rules to give more benefits to thecardholders and thereby create more demand for a financial card use at aparticular merchant(s). This type of reporting can also be used to provethe value to the merchants and cardholders derived from card use at anidentified merchant(s).

Merchants may generally view only the information regarding thetransactions that were made with identified cardholders. The loyaltysystem of the present invention allows for a System Administrator to seethe following information: 1) Time range of transactions 2) Date rangeof transactions 3) BIN Range of transactions 4) Summary amounts oftransactions

The loyalty system generally restricts the information that the merchantcan view by providing summary data only. The summary data protects thecardholders from direct exposure of private cardholder information,while allowing the merchant to view the status of the program.

For instance a merchant may wish to know how certain cards identified byBIN number are contributing to his sales. By comparing this informationwith historical reports and current internal customer payment methods amerchant can judge which financial card types are providing the mostbenefit for his organization.

FIG. 4d illustrates one particular process and system implementation forcustomizing loyalty programs involving cardholders, specifically asystem administrator for the operator of the loyalty system adjustingthe parameters associated with reward generation in connection withspecific members.

In a particular aspect of the present invention, the cardholder benefitsprocessing utility (30) is further associated with a means forprocessing financial transactions (or transaction utility (not shown)that is operable to conduct electronic transactions between loyaltysystem and the card issuer (for example via the card issuer system (38))possibly also between the loyalty system and the merchant acquirer (forexample via the merchant acquirer system (40).

FIG. 5 illustrates access to a survey utility (not shown) of the presentinvention, which in one aspect thereof is available to a merchant,corporate sponsor, and/or financial institution. More particularly themerchant, the corporate sponsor and the financial system may log into(500) the survey utility of loyalty program system. Once validated (502)by the system, the user (wherein user is defined as the merchant, thecorporate sponsor, or the financial institution) are shown (504) to themain administration screen. The user then selects (506) the surveyoptions and the system returns (508) the applicable survey optionsscreen, in one particular embodiment of the present invention. It shouldbe noted that the member or card holder may receive certain incentivesto complete the survey. An example of such an incentive but not limitedthereto is presentation offers, and rewards/prizing.

FIG. 6 illustrates adding/editing of conditions for a merchant basedtransaction triggered survey. In a particular aspect of the presentinvention, the system allows for the issuance of a survey to atransacting member based upon a predefined set of rules/conditions. Ifthese rules/conditions have been met, the member may receive a requestto complete a survey. In order to edit or add to these predefinedrules/conditions, from a merchant's perspective, the merchant may loginto the proper system utility. Once logged into the survey utility (seeFIG. 5), the merchant may select to edit/add (600) survey questions. Thesystem may respond by returning the edit/add screen (602). The merchantmay then select to alter (604) survey questions or alter/add (606)survey questions. A list of parameters (608) that may be edited or addedincludes but is not limited to: date range of a transaction, transactionamount, BIN ranges of the financial cards, if the card holder hasindicated that they would like to be contacted for merchant offer/news,card holder demographics, card holder geographic region, card hold priortransaction history. Once the changes have been made, the merchant maysave the changes (610) and exit the utility.

FIG. 7 illustrates adding/editing of the rules/conditions for a merchantbased non-transaction survey. Specifically, the system may allow formembers to be surveyed on a periodic basis without the requirement of atransaction. The system may select the members to be surveyed based upona predefined set of rules/conditions. In a similar manner as themerchant based transaction survey (see FIG. 6), if the conditions havebeen met, the non-transacting member may be surveyed. Similarly, themerchant has the ability to add/edit the rules/conditions by which anon-transacting member is selected. In a similar manner as thepreviously described transacting member, the merchant wishing to surveynon-transacting members, may log onto the survey utility (see FIG. 5)and may proceed in the exact manner as the previously describedtransacting member (see FIG. 6). The merchant may select to edit/add(700) survey questions. The system responds by returning the edit/addscreen (702). The merchant may then select to alter (704) surveyquestions or alter/add 706) survey questions. However the list ofparameters (708) that may be available to the merchant are different ascompared to the previous iteration (see FIG. 6). These parametersinclude but are not limited to the following: time between last survey,never transacted with merchant, transacted with other merchants in thesame category, card holder demographics, card holders geographic region,card holders prior transaction history. Once the changes have been made,the merchant may save the changes (710) and exit the utility.

It should be noted that system generated surveys whether transactedbased as described in FIG. 6 or non-transacted based as described inFIG. 7, may be subdivided into a multi-part questionnaire. The advantageof a multi-part questionnaire is that the member may receive additionalofferings or prize opportunities for completing the varying parts of thesurvey as an added incentive.

FIG. 8 illustrates adding/editing of the conditions for a corporatesponsor based transaction survey. In particular, the system may allowfor the issuance of a survey to a transacting member based upon apredefined set of rules/conditions. If the conditions have been met, themember may receive a request to complete a survey. In order to edit oradd to these predefined rules/conditions, from a corporate sponsor'sperspective, the corporate sponsor may log into the appropriate surveyutility. Once logged into the survey utility (see FIG. 5), the corporatesponsor may select to edit/add (800) survey questions. The system mayrespond by returning the edit/add screen (802). The corporate sponsormay then select to alter (804) survey questions or alter/add (806)survey questions. A list of parameters (808) that may be edited or addedincludes but are not limited to: date range of a transaction,transaction amount, merchant MMC, SIC or NAICS code, if the card holderhas indicated that they would like to be contacted for corporate sponsoroffer/news, card holder demographics, card holder geographic region,card hold prior transaction history. It should be noted that merchantacquirers may provide the equipment and transaction data structure. Themerchant acquirer may also adopt the role of system administrator andmay oversee as well as conduct their own surveys of the members.Merchant acquirers commonly use classification systems related toindustries including the aforementioned NAICS (National IndustryClassification System which were formerly the SIC and MMC codes. Ingeneral, these codes assist the system to identify certain types ofmerchants and provide an additional basis to assist in merchantsegmentation. Once the changes have been made, the corporate sponsor maysave the changes (810) and exit the utility.

FIG. 9 illustrates adding/editing of the conditions for a corporatesponsor based non-transaction survey. Specifically, the system may allowfor members to be surveyed on a periodic basis without the requirementof a transaction. The system may select members to be surveyed basedupon a predefined set of rules/conditions. In a similar manner as acorporate sponsor based transaction survey (see FIG. 8), if theconditions have been met, the non-transacting member will be surveyed.Similarly, the corporate sponsor may have the ability to add/edit therules/conditions by which a non-transacting member is selected. In asimilar manner as the previously described transacting member, thecorporate sponsor wishing to survey non-transacting members, may logonto the survey utility (see FIG. 5) and may proceed in the exact manneras the previously described transacting member (see FIG. 8). Thecorporate sponsor may select to edit/add (900) survey questions. Thesystem may respond by returning the edit/add screen (902). The corporatesponsor may then select to alter (904) survey questions or alter/add(906) survey questions. However the list of parameters (908) that areavailable to the corporate sponsor may be different as compared to theprevious iteration (see FIG. 8). These parameters include but are notlimited to the following: time between last survey, BIN range of card,card holder demographics, card holders geographic region, card holdersprior transaction history. Once the changes have been made, thecorporate sponsor may save the changes (910) and exit the utility.

FIG. 10 illustrates the adding/editing of the conditions for a financialinstitution based transaction survey. In particular the system may allowfor the issuance of a survey to a transacting member based upon apredefined set of rules/conditions. If the conditions have been met, themember may receive a request to complete a survey. In order to edit oradd to these predefined rules/conditions, from a financial institution'sperspective, the financial institution may log into the appropriatesurvey utility. Once logged into the survey utility (see FIG. 5), thefinancial institution may select to edit/add (1000) survey questions.The system responds by returning the edit/add screen (1002). Thefinancial institution may then select to alter (1004) survey questionsor alter/add (1006) survey questions. A list of parameters (1008) thatmay be edited or added includes but is not limited to: date range of atransaction, transaction amount, merchant MMC, SIC or NAICS code, BINrange of financial card, if the card holder has indicated that theywould like to be contacted for financial institutionoffers/news/products, card holder demographics, card holder geographicregion, card hold prior transaction history. Once the changes have beenmade, the financial institution may save the changes (1010) and exit theutility.

FIG. 11 illustrates adding/editing of the conditions for a financialinstitution based non-transaction survey. Specifically, the system mayallow for members to be surveyed on a periodic basis without therequirement of a transaction. The system may select the members to besurveyed based upon a predefined set of rules/conditions. In a similarmanner as the financial institution based transaction survey (see FIG.10), if the conditions have been met, the non-transacting member may besurveyed. Similarly, the financial institution may have the ability toadd/edit the rules/conditions by which a non-transacting member isselected. In a similar manner as the previously described transactingmember, the financial institution wishing to survey non-transactingmembers, may log onto the survey utility (see FIG. 5) and may proceed inthe exact manner as the previously described transacting member (seeFIG. 10). The financial institution may select to edit/add (1100) surveyquestions. The system may respond by returning the edit/add screen(1102). The financial institution may then select to alter (1104) surveyquestions or alter/add (1106) survey questions. However the list ofparameters (1108) that are available to the financial institution may bedifferent as compared to the previous iteration (see FIG. 10). Theseparameters include but are not limited to the following: time betweenlast survey, BIN range of card, card holder demographics, card holdersgeographic region. Once the changes have been made, the financialinstitution may save the changes (10) and may exit the utility.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of a transaction based survey. Asevidenced by the example, the survey may be geared from severaldifferent perspectives: the merchant, a corporate sponsor, a financialinstitution and lastly the administrator of the system may request cardholder/member input regarding the loyalty system.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example of data collection and application of thedynamic rule sets for survey development. A particular embodiment of theprocesses (and the system implementation thereof) relates to accrual ofbenefits is best understood by reference to FIG. 13. This FIG. 13commences in the same manner as previously described FIG. 4a wherein thecardholder who is a member may transact with a merchant using theirfinancial card (42). The merchant transaction data is then usuallysettled by the merchant acquirer (49). The member transaction data maythen be transmitted to the loyalty system (46). This member transactiondata usually includes the data items described above. This data is maythen be stored to the database (32), which in a preferred embodiment ofthe present invention may be a known relational database. Thetransactional rules defined for the cardholder by the merchant,corporate sponsors, financial institutions, and administrator (see FIGS.7-12) within the loyalty system may then be applied to the membertransaction.

FIG. 14 illustrates the member feedback page. The basis of thisparticular aspect of the survey utility is the ability for the member toinput feedback to the system. Due to the plurality of merchants,corporate sponsors, manufacturers (merchant acquirers), and financialinstitutions in order to organize their particular member surveys, theymay be represented as specific icons. In order to complete a specificsurvey, the member may simply select a specific icon.

FIG. 15 illustrates the method by which a member may provide feedback toa particular merchant, corporate sponsor, manufacturer (merchantacquirer), or financial institution. Once the corresponding icon hasbeen selected (see FIG. 14), the member may receive their survey asproduced by the system based upon the predefined rules and conditions.The member may complete the survey and it then may be saved by thesystem.

FIG. 16 illustrates, in a particular aspect of the present invention, asurvey reporting module view accessible by the merchants, corporatesponsors, financial institutions, and/or the system administrator. Inorder to reap the benefit of this collected survey information, themerchants, corporate sponsors, financial institutions or systemadministrator may log into the survey results section of the system.This is accomplished by first logging into the administration section(1600) of the system, from there; the system returns the administrationmenu (1602). The user must then decide (1606) to view the transactionalvs. non-transactional based surveys. Based upon the user selection andthe classification of the use (i.e. merchant, corporate sponsor,financial institution or system administrator), the system may display areport (1608) of the corresponding survey information.

Examples in Operation

It should be understood that the cost of acquiring new customers isgenerally quite high, and this is a cost that merchants tend to monitorvery closely. Particularly if a merchant's relationship with cardissuers, by operation of the present invention, permits the merchant toacquire a new customer through the card issuer, merchants may be willingto provide to the cardholder and/or to the card issuer relativelysignificant benefits in consideration of obtaining the new customer. Itshould be understood that the present invention enables a merchant totarget benefits to particular sub-groups of cardholders, depending ontheir interest to merchant, as explained herein.

A cardholder whose BIN number is associated with the program may go to amerchant who is also associated with the program. Within the loyaltysystem, the cardholder (in one particular implementation of the presentinvention) may be given a code to be presented at the merchant'slocation that reflects a discount offer. Upon payment, the cardholdermay receive a discount on monies owed. The cardholder in the aboveexample may be given an additional item from the merchant's inventory asrecognition for the cardholder being a member of the applicable loyaltyprogram.

After the cardholder transaction has been completed the transaction datamay be relayed to the loyalty system and the cardholder benefitsprocessing utility (34) may automatically offer prize entries as afollow up to the cardholder's purchase, possibly based on the loyaltyprogram rules defined by the merchant.

In one particular implementation of the present invention, after thecardholder transaction has been completed the transaction data isrelayed to the system. The loyalty system may define in accordance witha particular loyalty program a set of rules to complement existingpoints programs by converting the transaction data (e.g. identifiedmerchant, amount of transaction, date of transaction, time oftransaction) to convert the transaction into points in connection withthe applicable card issuer's BIN range point program and based uponparameters optionally set by each participating merchant. For instance,the system may convert transaction incentives or prizes within theloyalty program to points provided through the card issuer to thecardholder based on a pre-determined formula (usually based on anarrangement between the card issuer and the merchants, facilitated bythe operator of the loyalty system). The loyalty system may for exampleconvert a $100.00 spent by a cardholder under a loyalty program into 100points if the transaction was completed between the hours of 00:00:00and 12:00:00 Monday through Friday and 50 points at any other time forthe particular card used at a particular merchant.

The cardholder in the above example my visit a merchant participating inthe loyalty system. The cardholder may choose to use the financial cardthat is registered with the loyalty system over other financial cards,and complete a transaction. The loyalty system may identify themerchant, the date, the amount and optionally the time of day and theterminal ID and also may establish any accrued benefits includingpoints, prizes or discounted offers, as already explained. It should beunderstood that the card issuer in this case receives additional revenuefrom increased card use as the cardholder chooses the registered cardissuers' card over another financial card.

In a particular implementation of the present invention, the loyaltysystem may allows for the existing point programs operated by the cardissuer to be identified and supported within the loyalty system. Thisoccurs when, after conversion of incentives (for example) into points asdescribed above, the card issuer may then apply additional incentivesthrough its own point system thereby creating an enhanced pointsprogram.

It should be understood that the card issuer may permit their operatorof the loyalty system (or the merchants themselves) for access to BINranges of cardholders. The charges may depend on the efforts expended bythe card issuer to encourage cardholders to enroll in the loyaltyprogram. Or, the card issuer may elect to charge differing amounts forloyalty system access depending on the demographics of particularcardholders.

A card issuer may increase its revenue by offering incentives toconsumers to use a particular financial card with a greater number ofmerchants. Merchants associated with the loyalty system provideincremental incentives to cardholders in certain BIN ranges. This waythe card issuer and the loyalty system may cooperate to bring morebusiness to the common group.

In a specific implementation of the present invention, the card issuersmay elect to charge the cardholders an annual fee to carry a financialcard that may be associated with a particular BIN range, and therebyalso eligible for certain richer benefits in connection with a loyaltyprogram. The additional annual fees represent an important source ofadditional revenue to the card issuer.

As previously stated, a merchant belonging to the loyalty system maychoose to offer rewards/incentives based upon time of day and date. Themerchant's merchant acquirer provides selected information relating toparticular BIN ranges, transactions, dates and times. The loyalty systemmay identify the merchant, the time of day and the date and may applydifferential incentives either through the loyalty system or in the formof differential points transferred by to the card issuer for thecardholder.

The merchant through the loyalty system may contract with the merchantacquirer for anticipated additional transactions from a particular setof BIN numbers. The merchant acquirer may be rewarded for the service inthe form of a transaction fee or monthly fee through the loyalty system.The merchant may pay a differential rate for access to a particular BINas the cardholders to a particular BIN may offer a greater opportunityfor transactions.

A merchant acquirer may realize additional revenues due to differingtransaction fees associated with differing BIN number acceptance as aform of payment by a participating merchant. The merchant acquirer mayelect to charge differing transaction fees for acceptance of cardswithin certain BIN range of a participating card issuer.

It should be understood that one of the advantages of the presentinvention is that the described loyalty system and method may provide anopportunity for merchants, and for card issuers if they are willing, toefficiently operate and maintain their own loyalty program that providesthe ability to share customers through cross-promotion between cardissuers and merchants, and also cross-promotion between merchantsinvolving cardholders who become members. The present invention mayenable card issuers and merchants to obtain direct customer feedback andto perceive measured results regarding customer transactions at eachmerchant, including bases on analysis of BIN number ranges by operationof the loyalty system of the present invention.

In another aspect of the present invention, the card issuers may beprovided with an economic interest to motivate the cardholders to becomemembers of the loyalty system and to transact with merchants in orderfor the cardholders who are members to obtain benefits from themerchants (or from the card issuer based on an arrangement with themerchants). Again, customers of a co-branded card for example may beidentified within the loyalty system by means of their financial cardBIN range number through the registration process, thereby enablingsubsequent transactions involving particular cardholders and particularmerchants to be tracked, and measured results to be proven to cardissuers and merchants alike.

It should be understood that benefits in accordance with the presentinvention may be accrued on behalf of members (including members who arecardholders) in a number of ways. The benefits themselves may vary. In aparticular aspect of the present invention, pre-set benefit applicationor payment rates are associated with particular transactions associatedwith the loyalty system, as described in the Co-Pending PatentApplication.

It should also be understood that within the loyalty system, merchantsare motivated to develop new and innovative loyalty programs that willautomatically be accessible to cardholders in accordance with thepresent invention. This saves the card issuer the time and resourcesgenerally required to devise new loyalty programs and enter intoassociated arrangements with their partners, often separately for eachprogram.

Accordingly, the present invention may be understood as a means ofgenerating financial transactions and/or customers for financialinstitutions or merchants, or both.

It should also be understood that the loyalty system may provideflexibility in the arrangements made by the merchants, or in fact insome bases between the merchants and the card issuers, as it relates tothe benefits provided to cardholders who become members. Thesearrangements may define the pre-determined benefits associated withparticular transactions, e.g. a per transaction benefit to thecardholder or in fact to the card issuer. As such, the present inventionprovides a potential source of new revenue for the card issuer to theextent that not all of the benefits earmarked for cardholders'transactions is actually passed on to the cardholders.

It should be understood that it is open to the card issuer to alsoprovide benefits to cardholders in connection with transactionsassociated with the loyalty system. For example, card issuers may wantto enhance benefits available from merchants in connection with specifictransactions with benefits that they are themselves providing becausefor example the impact of client retention of a preferred customer whois a golfer might be enhanced if a benefit from the card issuer isprovided specifically in connection with a transaction that bringshappiness to the golfer, i.e. golf. Alternatively, the card issuer could“top up” benefits provided by merchants, thereby enhancing themerchant's relationship with the cardholder who is a member, if themerchant is a customer of the card issuer or a related entity of thecard issuer. Consequently, the loyalty system, at little or noadditional cost, can be used as a means of generating additional newbusiness for the card issuer.

In a particular aspect of the present invention, the loyalty system mayeffectively permit some merchants who would otherwise not be able toenter into co-branded card type arrangements (e.g. because of start upcosts or because of the merchant is a regional retailer where themerchant might not otherwise be attractive to a large financialinstitution). Accordingly, the present invention may allows regionalmerchants to compete better against national chains.

This invention, in one particular aspect thereof, provides a loyaltyprogram with a relatively low cost way to acquire customers and pay forthem over future transactions. It also provides the co-branded partnerthe ability to expand transactions on the current card base, both fromthe initial referrals and subsequent transactions resulting from crosspromotional offers within the loyalty system among other merchants.

By operation of the present invention, a financial card may be moved tothe front of the wallet to be used for more transactions.

In another particular aspect of the present invention, cardholders ofselected co-branded financial cards may become members where theco-branded partners' service or product is not really competitive withthe loyalty system merchants. Accordingly, use of co-branded cards inconnection with the described loyalty system protects transaction marketshare for both the card issuer and co-branded partners' market share.

The card issuer, the co-branded partner and the merchants of the loyaltyprogram may increase their customer transactions through sharingcustomers.

It should be evident from the above that the flexibility that may beprovided to card issuers and merchants to devise, implement, and thenmeasure the effectiveness of, various cross-promotional initiatives, candramatically increase the returns on investment of card issuers andmerchants alike, in connection with their customer retention andcustomer acquisition activities.

Other implementations and extensions of the invention are possible. Forexample, it should be understood that the present invention contemplatesuse of various security methods and technologies for restricting accessto resources of the loyalty system to those authorized to do so by theoperator of the loyalty system; the use of various existing and futuretechnologies to process payments by operation of the transaction utility(38); various tools and interfaces for interacting with the loyaltysystem in accordance with the method of the present invention. Thesystem also allows for robust reporting which may include comparativereports of member affinity or of transaction history with participatingmerchants. In other words, member transaction history may be differentfor differing groups of members based on member affinity.

What is claimed is:
 1. A loyalty system for enabling a loyalty programto be operable via the Internet to engage in real time datacommunications with one of more card issuers respectively issuingaccounts to account holders and one or more merchant acquirersrespectively issuing accounts to merchant, the loyalty program beinglinked to the one or more card issuers, and thereby their accountholders, by operation of the loyalty system, the loyalty system beingoperable to enable the creation, implementation and management of one ormore loyalty programs that provide benefits to members of the loyaltyprograms in connection with transactions between the members and one ormore merchants associated with the loyalty system, the loyalty systemcomprising: means for registering on the loyalty system one or more cardissuers of a card issuer system; means for registering on the loyaltysystem one or more merchant acquirers of a merchant acquirer systemassociated with the one or more card issuers; means for registering aplurality of the account holders as members of the loyalty program;means for the operator of the loyalty system, the one or more cardissuers, and the merchants establishing rules for accrual and processingof benefits from the merchants to account holders associated with theone or more card issuers in connection with transactions between theaccount holders and the merchants with the loyalty system; for each saidtransaction between one said account holder and one said merchanttransaction, means for receiving acknowledgement of: an authorizationrequest for the transaction sent from the merchant acquirercorresponding to the merchant to the card issuer corresponding theaccount holder; and an authorization response to authorization requestsent from the card issuer corresponding to the account holder to themerchant acquirer corresponding to the merchant; and for each saidtransaction for which the authorization response includes an indicatorthat the transaction has been authorized by the card issuercorresponding to the account holder: means for applying the rules toaccrue and process the benefits of account holders in connection withthe transactions between the account holders and the merchants, byoperation of the loyalty system; and means for defining a survey utilitycapable to issue surveys to members of the loyalty system, wherein saidmeans for defining the survey utility includes: means for receiving,from at least one of the card issuer system and the merchant acquirersystem, transaction data associated with an electronically-processedtransaction conducted on an account of one said account holder to whomthe account was issued by one said card issuer, wherein the one saidaccount holder and the one said card issuer are registered with theloyalty program, and the transaction is between the one said accountholder and one said merchant registered with the loyalty program, thetransaction data including a account holder identifier; means fordetermining whether the transaction triggers a survey based on the dataand a set of survey triggering criteria; and when the transactiontriggers the survey, means for generating signals for communicating thesurvey to the one said account holder; and means for paying the benefitsto the card issuers so that the card issuers may optionally retain aportion of the benefits, whereby an additional source of revenue isprovided to the card issuers.
 2. The loyalty system as defined in claim1 further comprising means for generating signals for triggering theaccrual of at least one benefit to the account holder based oncompletion of the survey.
 3. The loyalty system as defined in claim 1,wherein at least one benefit is accrued to the card issuer from themerchant based on the transaction data.
 4. The loyalty system as definedin claim 1, wherein the means for determining that the transactiontriggers the survey is based on at least one survey triggering criteriondefined by at least one of the merchant, a corporate sponsor or afinancial institution.
 5. The loyalty system as defined in claim 4,further comprising means for receiving signals for creating or modifyingat least one survey triggering criterion defined by the merchant.
 6. Theloyalty system as defined in claim 4, wherein at least one of the surveytriggering criteria are defines based on at least one of a date range ofthe transaction, a transaction amount, or a financial card BIN number.7. The loyalty system as defined in claim 4, comprising means foridentifying a account holder account in a database based on thetransaction data account holder identifier; and wherein at least one ofthe survey triggering criteria is based on at least one of: a accountholder demographic, a geographic region of the card holder, or atransaction history of the account holder.
 8. The loyalty system asdefined in claim 4 wherein at least one of the survey triggeringcriteria is based on a time since a previous survey completion, anindication that the account holder has never transacted with themerchant, or an indication that the account holder has transacted withother merchants in a same category as the transacting merchant.
 9. AnInternet server hardware system comprising: means for executing softwarefor enabling a loyalty program to be operable via the Internet to engagein real time data communications with one of more card issuersrespectively issuing accounts to account holders and one or moremerchant acquirers respectively issuing accounts to merchant, the methodfurther enabling the loyalty program to be linked to the one or morecard issuers, and thereby their account holders, by operation of aloyalty system, the loyalty system being operable to enable thecreation, implementation and management of one or more loyalty programsthat provide benefits to members of the loyalty programs in connectionwith transactions between the members and one or more merchantsassociated with the loyalty system, the loyalty system including: meansfor registering on the loyalty system one or more card issuers of a cardissuer system; means for registering on the loyalty system one or moremerchant acquirers of a merchant acquirer system associated with the oneor more care issuers; means for registering a plurality of the accountholders as members of the loyalty program; the operator of the loyaltysystem, the one or more card issuers, and the merchants establishingrules for accrual and processing of benefits from the merchants toaccount holders associated with the one or more card issuers inconnection with transactions between the account holders and themerchants with the loyalty system; for each said transaction between onesaid account holder and one said merchant transaction, means forreceiving acknowledgement of: an authorization request for thetransaction sent from the merchant acquirer corresponding to themerchant to the card issuer corresponding the account holder; and anauthorization response to authorization request sent from the cardissuer corresponding to the account holder to the merchant acquirercorresponding to the merchant; and for each said transaction for whichthe authorization response includes an indicator that the transactionhas been authorized by the card issuer corresponding to the accountholder, the loyalty system including: means for applying the rules toaccrue and process the benefits of account holders in connection withthe transactions between the account holders and the merchants, byoperation of the loyalty system; and means for defining a survey utilitycapable to issue surveys to members of the loyalty system, wherein themeans for defined the survey utility includes: means for receiving, fromat least one of the card issuer system and the merchant acquirer system,transaction data associated with an electronically-processed transactionconducted on an account of one said account holder to whom the accountwas issued by one said card issuer, wherein the one said account holderand the one said card issuer are registered with the loyalty program,and the transaction is between the one said account holder and one saidmerchant registered with the loyalty program, the transaction dataincluding a account holder identifier; means for determining whether thetransaction triggers a survey based on the data and a set of surveytriggering criteria; and when the transaction triggers the survey, meansfor generating signals for communicating the survey to the one saidaccount holder; and means for paying the benefits to the card issuers sothat the card issuers may optionally retain a portion of the benefits,whereby an additional source of revenue is provided to the card issuers.10. The Internet server hardware system as defined in claim 9, whereinthe means for executing software configures the Internet server hardwaresystem for: generating signals for triggering accrual of at least onebenefit to the account holder based on completion of the survey.
 11. TheInternet server hardware system as defined in claim 9, wherein at leastone benefit is accrued to the card issuer from the merchant based on thetransaction data.
 12. The Internet server hardware system as defined inclaim 9, wherein determining that the transaction triggers the survey isbased on at least one survey triggering criterion defined by at leastone of the merchant, a corporate sponsor or a financial institution. 13.The Internet server hardware system as defined in claim 12, wherein themeans for executing software configures the Internet server hardwaresystem for receiving signals for creating or modifying at least onesurvey triggering criterion defined by the merchant.
 14. The Internetserver hardware system as defined in claim 12, wherein at least one ofthe survey triggering criteria are defined based on at least one of adate range of the transaction, a transaction amount, or a financial cardBIN number.
 15. The Internet server hardware system as defined in claim12, wherein the means for executing software configures the Internetserver hardware system for identifying a account holder account in adatabase based on the transaction data account holder identifier; andwherein at least one of the survey triggering criteria is based on atleast one of: a account holder demographic, a geographic region of thecard holder, or a transaction history of the account holder.
 16. TheInternet server hardware system as defined in claim 12, wherein at leastone of the survey triggering criteria is based on a time since aprevious survey completion, an indication that the account holder hasnever transacted with the merchant, or an indication that the accountholder has transacted with other merchants in a same category as thetransacting merchant.
 17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium ormedia having stored thereon computer-readable instructions forconfiguring an Internet server hardware system to execute thecomputer-readable instructions to perform a method for enablingoperation of a loyalty system, the loyalty system being operable toenable the creation, implementation and management of one or moreloyalty programs that provide benefits to account holders that aremembers of the loyalty programs in connection with transactions betweenthe account holders and one or more merchants associated with theloyalty system, characterized in that the method comprises the steps of:registering on the loyalty system one or more card issuers of a cardissuer system; registering on the loyalty system one or more merchantacquirers of a merchant acquirer system associated with the one or morecare issuers; registering a plurality of the account holders as membersof the loyalty program; the operator of the loyalty system, the one ormore card issuers, and the merchants establishing rules for accrual andprocessing of benefits from the merchants to account holders associatedwith the one or more card issuers in connection with transactionsbetween the account holders and the merchants with the loyalty system;for each said transaction between one said account holder and one saidmerchant transaction for which there has been received anacknowledgement that the transaction has been authorized by the cardissuer corresponding to the account holder: applying the rules to accrueand process the benefits of account holders in connection with thetransactions between the account holders and the merchants, by operationof the loyalty system; and defining a survey utility capable to issuesurveys to members of the loyalty system, wherein the defined surveyutility includes the steps of: receiving, from at least one of the cardissuer system and the merchant acquirer system, transaction dataassociated with an electronically-processed transaction conducted on anaccount of one said account holder to whom the account was issued by onesaid card issuer, wherein the one said account holder and the one saidcard issuer are registered with the loyalty program, and the transactionis between the one said account holder and one said merchant registeredwith the loyalty program, the transaction data including a accountholder identifier; determining whether the transaction triggers a surveybased on the data and a set of survey triggering criteria; and when thetransaction triggers the survey, generating signals for communicatingthe survey to the one said account holder; and paying the benefits tothe card issuers so that the card issuers may optionally retain aportion of the benefits, whereby an additional source of revenue isprovided to the card issuers.
 18. The medium or media as defined inclaim 17, wherein the computer-readable instructions includeinstructions for configuring the Internet server hardware system for:generating signals for triggering the accrual of at least one benefit tothe account holder based on completion of the survey.
 19. The medium ormedia as defined in claim 17, wherein at least one benefit is accrued tothe card issuer from the merchant based on the transaction data.
 20. Themedium or media as defined in claim 17, wherein determining that thetransaction triggers the survey is based on at least one surveytriggering criterion defined by at least one of the merchant, acorporate sponsor or a financial institution.